CAM Connects

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Fiesta! An Annual Celebration since 1927

→ Read the June 24 CAM Connects issue here.

Philip Reisman (1904-1992), Blessing the Fleet, 1952. Oil on panel. Collection of the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, MA. Gift of the artist, 1990 [acc. #2692.2].

In this issue:

♦ Viva San Pietro!
In honor of this year’s canceled St. Peter's Fiesta, the Cape Ann Museum explores the history and traditions that have underscored this Italian American community celebration in Gloucester for over 90 years.

♦ Gloucester’s Enduring Festival
Jeanne Linquata, Vito Giacolone and Joe Palmisano, join Cape Ann Museum Board President, Charles Esdaile, Board Clerk, Nina Goodick and Director, Oliver Barker in conversation about the import of the St. Peter’s Fiesta to the Cape Ann community as well as a discussion about how Fiesta traditions are being kept alive in 2020 despite Fiesta's cancellation. 

♦ Fiesta in the 1930s
Footage for this video comes from a 16mm home movie made by Eleanor Parke Custis in the 1930s. Music by local musicians Patricia and Marlon Doucette, recorded 2009, used with permission.

♦ The Greasy Pole
Though St. Peter’s Fiesta is a celebration rooted in prayer and spiritual thanksgiving, one of its most popular traditions is the decidedly rowdy Greasy Pole, an unusual competition held during the last three days of the five day festival. This bite-sized documentary by Gloucester native Emile Doucette provides a glimpse into the competition’s history and a few of its legends.

♦ CAM Kids: Fiesta Project
Join in on the Fiesta fun with CAM Kids coloring pages created by our Education Department! Take a picture of your coloring pages once completed and tag us on social media with the hashtag #CAMKidsCreate so we can see your beautiful work!

From the Video Vault: The Maritime & Fishing Industries

→ Read the June 18 CAM Connects issue here.

Emile A. Gruppé (1896-1978). The Bait Diggers, c. 1930s. Oil on canvas. Gift of Leicester J. Roberts, 2001 [Acc. # 2001.63.1]

In this issue:

♦ The Empire and the Seaport: Trading Overseas in the Early Republic
Robert Booth contrasts Salem’s rise as a trading powerhouse in the first decades after the Revolution with Gloucester’s less ambitious, less lucrative but more steadfast maritime economy. Salem’s leading families emerge in this presentation as cutthroat rivals, who, despite intermarrying, aligned their financial, religious and especially political interests against one another, with Jeffersonian Republicans squaring off against Hamiltonian Federalists.

♦ All the Ships at Sea—A Celebration of Cape Ann's Role in the Maritime Trades
This lecture by William Trayes highlights the long-time association of Cape Ann and Gloucester with the many painters who sought authenticity in often romanticized, occasionally gritty images of ships, the sea and the shore. Trayes speaks fondly of the connections he made with maritime culture growing up in Rockport, sailing its waters and learning about the contributions of so many painters to Cape Ann’s reputation in the national pantheon of nautical art.

♦ Charles Olson, Newman Shea and the Fish Strike of 1917
David Rich's exploration of the fishing industry’s labor-management conflicts of the 1910s and '20s outlines the contentious issues embroiling the Gloucester fishing community, the incipient union movement, and the experiments of cooperative fishing that began over a century ago, before pivoting to an encounter between Newman Shea, the business agent for the fishermen’s union, and the poet Charles Olson aboard the Doris M. Hawes in 1936, that finds its way into Olson's The Maximus Poems.

Women of Cape Ann—Video Vault Feature

→ Read the June 11 CAM Connects issue here.

Mary Shore (1912-2000). The Sullen Sea, Undated. Oil on Masonite. Gift of Brian Shore, 2001 [#2001.39.2].

In this issue:

♦ Sisters of the Brush: Women Artists in 19th Century America
This 2008 lecture by Erica Hirshler, Senior Curator of Paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, chronicles notable 19th century female American artists, many of whom spent time on Cape Ann.

♦ Drawn to the Light: Women Artists of Cape Ann, 1900-1950
An authority on American art, Boston MFA Curatorial Research Associate Janet Comey turns her attention towards a selection of female painters with ties to Cape Ann in the early 1900s in this 2008 lecture.

♦ Women Workers at Mighty Mac with John Ronan
Sometimes achieving greatness means more than attaining name recognition status—as this video featuring Gerolama “Gerri” Lovasco, a stitcher at Mighty Mac in the 1940s and 50s, aptly demonstrates.

♦ The Girl I Left Behind Me
This video presentation by Mary Rhinelander McCarl highlights the everyday contributions made by women during the Civil War, with discussion of period illustrations by Winslow Homer that were published in Harper’s Weekly.

Historic Preservation

→ Read the May 28 CAM Virtual E-Newsletter here.

In this issue:

♦ May is Historic Preservation Month! We invite you to learn about the four unique historic structures owned and operated by the Cape Ann Museum: the White-Ellery House (1710), the Babson-Alling House (c.1740), an early New England barn (c. 1740) and the Captain Elias Davis House (c. 1799-1804). Start exploring here ...

♦ This week on the Video Vault, we bring you Private Lives, Public House—The White-Ellery House and the Stories of the Families Who Lived There. Presented in 2010 by Stephanie Buck and Martha Oaks in celebration of the 300th anniversary of the White-Ellery House.

♦ Have fun with a CAMKids Historic Homes art project.

♦ The Museum has been forging bridges between past and present at the White-Ellery House since 2010 ... find out more ...

Welcoming Spring!

→ Read the May 21 CAM Virtual E-Newsletter here.

In this issue:

♦ Enjoy this week’s featured Video Vault lecture, presented by Electa Kane Tritsch in 2008: Ravenswood Parks: From Wilderness to Special Place.

♦ Take a look back to 2019's Cape Ann Blossoms, dedicated to outgoing Museum Director Ronda Faloon

♦ Have fun with CAMKids spring-inspired art project: Paper Flowers with Nell Blaine.

♦ Find out about The Spring Kings, and the Portuguese sea captain, Joseph P. Mesquita, who brought the tradition to Gloucester from the Azores.

Gloucester Endures

→ Read the May 12 CAM Virtual E-Newsletter here.

In this issue:

♦ Julie LaFontaine, President and CEO of The Open Door, expresses her gratitude to the Cape Ann Museum membership in this video interview with Oliver Barker and videographer Jeff Barrows.

♦ The Influenza Epidemic of 1918

♦ CAM Contemporary: "In Gratitude"

Introducing CAM Video Vault

→ Read the May 1 CAM Virtual E-Newsletter here.

Welcome to the Cape Ann Museum's Video Vault Lecture Series, hosted by Trenton Carls, Cape Ann Museum Librarian & Archivist.

Feature Release: Coming of Age in the Rocky Neck Art Scene of the 1950s with Peter Anastas—read about it in "Stories from the Stacks" or go straight to Vimeo to watch the video here.